Do You Hear the Noise?

On almost every forest bathing walk I’ve guided, someone comments on the occasional man-made sounds intruding on our time in the woods. 

There was that time in the Davidson town park when a nearby landowner began clearing the leaves in his yard with a leaf blower…

And the time we could hear the distant sound of joy riding ATVs just outside of the nature preserve…

And then, the time one guest noticed how loud the sound of our footsteps swishing through the leaves was, magnified against the quiet of Magic Tree Sanctuary’s forest. 

The comment I hear on the walks over and over again is...

“Wow, humans make so much noise.”

There’s the external noise, yes, but the one I’ve been noticing lately is the noise in my head. 

The thought train. 

We all have it.

The constant narrator who resides in your mind.

Do you know it?

This past fall, I sat in the solitude of the forest for an entire day. It was a beautiful autumn day during peak foliage season, and at one point, my attention focused on the sound of the steady stream of cars driving by on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Suddenly, it dawned on me...The drivers don’t know. They’re hurrying along to get to their next destination, possibly in conversation, or lost in the sound of the radio. They have no idea they are racing past this tranquil space. 

This place of peace which is always here. No matter how busy we are, how fast we hurry by.

What I know for sure is the same place of peace found in the woods is within us, too. Every single one of us. 

It’s always there waiting for us to find it. Or rather I should say uncover it because it really isn’t lost. 

It lies underneath the thought train and it’s always been there.

Within this place is peace, and also, deep wisdom and infinite possibility.

If you don’t know it, I invite you to spend some time in nature as I have found it to be the easiest way to get a glimpse of this space.

Gaze at a tree or a flower. For as long as you can. (The longer the better.) Notice all the tiny details that make up its being. Touch it. Smell it. Be with it fully. Let your awareness rest upon it and lean into the sense of its aliveness and stillness. 

The secret to the uncovering is in your senses. Step out of your mind and into your body and it will all be revealed to you.

Forest Love,

Julie

Let your mind be still,

for the wisdom you seek is like that 

butterfly over yonder. 

If you try to catch it with your intellect, 

it will simply fly away.

On the other hand, if you can still 

your mind, 

someday when you least expect it, 

it will land in the palm of your hand.

--Syd Banks